Weekend #2 in Brussels!

It seems as though I brought the beautiful weather we were having in Canada here to Belgium with me. We lucked out with 3 straight days of pure sunshine this weekend!

On Friday morning I mapped out a 5km run to the University campus (ULB) so that I could check out a Belgian healthy-food chain called Exki. Exki was started in Belgium but has now expanded to a few other European countries and it sells all kinds of healthy salads, soups, and sandwiches. I especially love it because they list all of the ingredients (French, Flemmish, and English!) so that you know exactly what it is you're eating.

 Friday afternoon we went on a huge bus tour of Brussels and ended the night by sampling 5 or 6 different kinds of Belgian beer. I discovered that I prefer dark beer to light beer, and have fallen particularly in love with one called Barbar. After that we went to a bar called Delirium which has a menu of over 2000 beers to choose from (the menu was the size of the Brockville phone book ha ha!).

The Atomium

The beer expert who hosted the beer-tasting session.

My favourite Belgian beer so far!

Saturday was another beautiful day, so myself and the other interns went to a park near the University campus, had a picnic and tanned all afternoon. There were tons of people all over the park enjoying the weather, playing frisbee, and listening to music so it was a relaxing day.

Saturday night we went down to "Mini-Europe" and watched the fire work show which was really good (although all I have to compare it to is Brockville firewords ha ha). The highlight of my day, though, had to be on the subway ride to Mini-Europe. In Belgium (and maybe other countries as well) instead of Stag and Doe's to raise money for weddings, the wedding parties dress up in the most rediculous outfits they can, get really drunk, and then sing or do other funny things for money from strangers. The Groom that we got to meet was really funny, he sung us "Yellow Submarine" and had us rip wax strips off of his legs and chest. He was a really good sport about it, although they were all really drunk so I am sure he wasn't feeling it as much as he should have.

 Today we went to Gare du Midi market in Brussels, one of the largest in Europe. 90% of the fruits and vegetables I have been eating have been coming from markets...it is insanely cheap and everything is so fresh. My market purchases ended up being a garden salad with fresh beets and avocados in a citrus dressing for dinner which was amazing!

Here are a few pictures from Mini-Europe:

Looking forward to going to bed early after all of the activities from this weekend... I think I might be getting strep throat (for those of you who know me well... quelle surprise?!) but I guess I may as well get it out of the way before school starts haha.


From Brussels with love ♥